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CHATTER] Xinix 
THE’ SEA-OTTER. 
MARINE mammals, as we have explained in preceding chapters, 
have not the same organisation as the terrestrial mammalia. The 
body is more or less in the form of a fish, and the limbs resemble 
fins. We have now to speak of a little quadruped which scarcely 
differs in structure from those which live on land, and which is 
nevertheless exclusively a marine quadruped, and perhaps is the 
THE SEA-OTTER. 
(Enhydris marina.) 
only one that exists. Everybody knows the common otter (Lucra 
vulgaris), a little carnivorous animal with palmated feet, furnished 
with claws, and a long tail, broad and rounded. 
The sea-otter is somewhat larger, being three or four feet 
long. Its head is moderately large, round, and not unlike a cat’s. 
It has short ears, eyes black and almost circular, and white, long, 
pendant moustaches. The tail is less developed than in the com- 
mon otter, the paws are smaller, and adapted for marine life; the 
